


There's a Drumming Noise Inside My Head (That Starts When You're Around)

by RavenclawPianist



Series: You Inspired a Fire of Devotion [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, Slow Burn, Unrequited Love, i wanted to set myself on fire so many times while writing this, leo gets feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-13
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-12-14 17:07:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11787606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RavenclawPianist/pseuds/RavenclawPianist
Summary: Leo should know better than to get crushes on girls who are way out of his league.He really should know better.





	1. Part One

**Author's Note:**

> The Leo POV from "A Scribbled Out Name." Some of the same scenes, some new ones. A lot of feelings.
> 
> I do recommend reading Scribbled Out Name first, as this is basically just a companion fic to that.

“We need to talk,” Piper didn’t even give him a minute to breathe after he walked through the apartment door after a shift at the garage. “Come sit.”

“I’m getting some weird Mom vibes from you right now,” Leo commented, leaving his keys on the kitchen counter before joining Piper and Jason in the living room. “I swear I didn’t skip any classes lately, please don’t take my Xbox.”

Piper huffed, fighting against a grin. “Okay, fair. But we are having an intervention.”

Jason looked up from the pile of junk mail in front of him, flipping the switch on the laminator he kept on the coffee table. “I don’t think intervention is the right word. More just that we want to make sure you know what’s going on.”

“Alright, I’m starting to get worried,” Leo dropped to sit on the floor across the table from Jason. “What’s up?”

Piper and Jason exchanged glances. “It’s about Calypso,” Jason finally replied.

Leo shrugged his shoulders, hands starting to drum against the edge of the table. “What about her?”

“What do you think about her?” Piper asked, watching Jason prepare a take-out menu from Hestia’s Diner to go through the laminator.

Leo’s drumming sped up. “She’s cool! I mean, a little stand-offish sometimes, but overall fun. And once she relaxes she is great to talk to. And did you know she has a garden that she keeps on her fire escape? And she used to make her own clothes until she stopped having enough time? And, I mean, she’s not exactly hard on the eyes. Like the other night when she stopped at the bar and her hair was loose and she was wearing that gray dress, I don’t know if I’ve ever….”he narrowed his eyes at his friends. “Why are you guys looking at me like that?”

Piper shook her head, sad smile on her face. “Leo.”

“What?” he demanded.

“Dude,” Jason said, setting aside a freshly laminated pamphlet on how to choose a realtor. “You have feelings for her.”

Leo scoffed and handed Jason the next lamination sheet. “I think I know better than to fall for a slightly reserved girl who is way out of my league,” he replied. “Been there, done that.”

Jason shook his head, putting an ad for $30 off an acupuncture treatment through the laminator. “I’m serious, Leo. Don’t mess with her. From what Piper and Reyna have said, she’s had a tough time when it comes to relationships. And I know you, you always go for the girls who aren’t as invested as you are. Calypso has her walls up, so you take that as a challenge. Just let this one go.”

“She has had a couple bad runs with guys lately,” Piper seconded. “From what she said at girls’ night two days ago, she’s off dating for a while. And, Leo, you know I love you, but it doesn’t even sound like you’re her type. She typically goes for tall, muscular guys who were probably captain of their high school football team or something.”

“Are you saying I’m not tall or muscular?” Leo asked with mock indignation, puffing up his chest. “I could be tall and muscular if I tried.”

“Don’t think that’s how it works,” Jason muttered, absently running a pet adoption flyer through the laminator.

“Save that one,” Piper told her boyfriend. “I want the puppies on the fridge. Leo, did you hear yourself when you were talking about her? You obviously have feelings for her. And she is not a good match right now.”

“Look, just because I’ve made some bad dating choices in the past doesn’t mean I want to ruin my love life,” Leo argued. “I’ll admit that Calypso is hotter than anyone should be, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to do anything about it!”

Piper once again repressed a grin. “So you admit you have feelings for her?”

Leo sighed and slumped forward against the table, forcing Jason to shift the laminator over to avoid Leo’s curly hair. “I admit that I might, possibly, have a small crush on Calypso,” he told the table. “Happy?”

Piper reached forward and ruffled his hair. “As long as you know what you’re doing.”

“Of course he doesn’t,” Jason replied. “But that’s what we’re here for. Hey, did you guys want to get take-out? This new Chinese place actually looks like it has a decent menu.”

 

 

Two weeks later the whole group congregated at Leo and Jason’s apartment for movie night. Calypso arrived at the same time as Hazel and Frank, a grocery bag in her arms. “I know you just said you needed replacement popcorn, but I also picked up chocolate and Twizzlers. And a bag of carrots for anyone who wants to pretend to be healthy.”

“We’ll take those,” Frank said, snagging the carrots from the bag and going to join Piper on the couch. She had a pile of movies on the coffee table in front of her. Frank flipped through the pile and immediately removed three of the DVDs. “No Iron Man movies. Remember last time?”

“What happened last time?” Calypso asked.

Leo winced, Jason grinned. “Leo tried to make his own Iron Man suit out of tin foil, a toaster, and part of an old laptop.”

“In my defense,” Leo took the grocery bag from Calypso. “I was drunk.”

“That was the night we played the Iron Man drinking game,” Hazel said. “But we made up our own rules, which turned out to be a bad idea. Do you know how many times Tony says _Jarvis_ in those movies? Too many times to safely drink on.”

Jason stopped Leo from putting a freshly unwrapped bag of microwave popcorn in the appliance. “I’ll take care of the popcorn. Why don’t you guys go help chose a movie?”

Leo followed the girls into the living room, flopping down to sit on the loveseat at an angle to the television. Hazel sat beside Frank, who automatically draped an arm around her shoulders. Calypso claimed the other half of the loveseat, curling her legs up under her as she leaned against the side. Jason came in with three large bowls of popcorn as Piper started the movie, waiting for her to sit back on the couch before sitting on the ground in front of her and leaning back against her legs.

Reyna let herself into the apartment just as the Jurassic Park theme began to play from the speakers. “You should really lock your door. I could have been a burglar.” She threw herself into the empty armchair across from the loveseat, swinging her legs over the chair’s arm.

“Like we have anything worth stealing,” Piper joked. “Besides, Frank could take a burglar.”

“What about me?” Jason asked. “I’m the one who is actually a bouncer.”

Piper patted the top of his head. “You’re too nice. You’d probably invite them to join movie night.”

They all quieted down as the movie progressed, bowls of popcorn slowly emptying as they watched a family vacation go bad. Just before the raptors escaped their enclosure, Calypso shifted on the loveseat, leaning towards Leo instead.

Leo glanced at her, lightly nudging her shoulder with his. She looked back at him. “Sorry,” she whispered, starting to shift away again. “My legs fell asleep.”

“I don’t mind,” he whispered back. “You can lean on me.”

She smiled slightly at him, moving so they were sitting right beside each other, the back of her shoulder blade against the side of his. He adjusted his own position until they both were more comfortable, hands inches away from each other on the cushion. Leo found himself suddenly very aware of every inch of his skin. His fingers began drumming lightly on the couch arm.

As the Tyrannosaurus Rex distracted the raptors so the people could get away, Calypso relaxed further and let her head lean against Leo’s shoulder. The air caught in his lungs. A wash of heat raced down his arm from where her cheek rested against his shirt to the ends of his fingertips.

When Piper put in the second movie, Leo and Calypso stayed as they were.

 

 

 “Okay, um, Reyna, Piper, or Hazel,” Leo said, slapping the jack of spades as soon as he placed it on the pile.

Calypso made a face at him as he took the cards. “Marry Hazel, sleep with Reyna, cross-country road trip with Piper.”

“You’re just saying that because her boyfriend is the bouncer tonight,” Leo joked, hand twitching at the sight of the queen of diamonds.

Calypso shook her head. “Hazel would be such a good wife, are you kidding? And I’ve heard some really good reviews of Reyna from people she’s slept with.”

“Reviews?” Leo repeated. “What, there’s a new form of Yelp out there for sexual partners?”

She choked slightly on a sip of lemonade. “God, I hope not. No, one of her exes and I used to hang out. I got way more information about their relationship than I ever wanted. Jason, Frank, or Will?”

Leo winced, hand twitching again as she put down the king of clubs. “Road trip with Frank, marry Jason, sleep with Will.”

“Really?”

“What?” he asked, reshuffling the stack of cards as they had already run through the full pack. “I already live with Jason, marriage wouldn’t be that different.”

“No, that one makes sense,” Calypso replied, taking back half the card deck. “But Will?”

“I think he’d be gentle,” Leo replied teasingly. “And you know, I like a lover with a little tenderness.”

They both looked at each other for a second before bursting into laughter. Leo leaned his forehead against the side of the bar and tried to catch his breath while Calypso wiped tears out of the corner of her eyes.

“Okay, okay,” she gasped. “New question.”

“What, talking about me and Will making sweet love has ruined the game for you?” he joked. “Never imagined you as a prude.”

She broke down into laughter again, each hiccup like a sip of strong coffee in his system. He loved the nights they were able to just hang out and joke around in the empty bar. He couldn’t remember what he used to do during quiet nights before, and he didn’t particularly care to try.

“Whoo, okay,” she shook her head. “Um, ok. What is your actual type? Don’t say Will, because I know that’s not true.”

Leo huffed out a laugh, tapping his fingers in time with the music from the jukebox. “Based on past relationships, my type is way out of my league,” he said. “Blonde hair, long legs, an over-it-all attitude, doesn’t like my jokes, and leaves as soon as something better comes along.”

Calypso winced, setting her glass back on the counter. “You know you deserve better than that, right?”

Leo shrugged, one shoulder staying up closer to his ear while he ducked out from behind the bar to queue up a new list of songs on the jukebox. “Better is easy to say, hard to find,” he replied. “My mom always used to say love was a matter of right time, right place, and right person. Guess I haven’t gotten there yet.” He stayed on the customer side of the bar, sitting on the stool beside Calypso’s. “What about you? What kind of guy makes Calypso Atlas swoon?” The smile he flashed her was much flashier than he felt, but he really didn’t want to talk about his usual poor taste in romantic relationships any further.

She gave him a look before shrugging. “I don’t know. I guess tall, broad, athletic, sturdy- like they could actually sweep me off my feet. A sense of humor is good, but I care more about how comfortable I am around them. And I’m a sucker for blue eyes.”

Leo felt an unexpected little sinking feeling in his chest from her list. The only one of those qualities he could claim would be humor, if you liked sarcasm and bad jokes. He’d known all along that Calypso was way out of his league, but something about hearing her describe the types of guys she dated hit the point home with a vengeance.

“Obviously that type hasn’t worked out very well for me, though,” Calypso laughed breezily. “What did you say your mom said?”

“Right time, right place, right person,” Leo replied automatically.

Calypso nodded. “I like that. Haven’t gotten there yet, but I like it.” She glanced at her phone on the counter and sighed. “I should probably head out. I have that meeting with my editor tomorrow morning and should get some sleep so it doesn’t look like I spent all night at a bar.”

“Oh sure, be responsible,” Leo shook his head and dramatically put a hand over his heart. “What will I ever do to fill these lonely hours now?”

She rolled her eyes, digging through her purse. “What do I owe you for the lemonade?”

He waved his hand at her. “It’s on me.”

“What? No, seriously, how much?” she frowned.

“You kept me company so I wasn’t alone with Jason and those two old guys who were here earlier,” Leo replied. “You don’t pay, Calypso. Go home. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He hoisted himself up onto the counter from his stool and swung his legs around until he landed back behind the bar.

She reached out to lightly squeeze his wrist. “Thanks, Leo,” she turned to go before quickly spinning back to face him and digging through her purse again. “I almost forgot,” she said, dropping a tiny wrapped box and folded note on the counter. “I saw that at a bookstore and thought of you. Have a good night!”

Leo flipped open the note as Jason went outside to help Calypso hail a cab.

**Apparently these can help people with attention disorders focus/give them something to do with their hands. If you don’t like it you don’t have to use it, but it made me think of you.- C**

He pulled the wrapping paper off the box and shook out the item inside. A fidget cube fell into his palm. Leo grinned. He had one for a week when they first came out, but lost it somewhere between his two jobs and home. Absently flipping the switch on one side back and forth, Leo glanced towards the door, a soft smile on his face. _She thought of me._

Jason came back in once Calypso was safely in a cab, walking over to the counter and leaning against it with a shit-eating grin.

 “So, I hear I need to get you an engagement ring?” he asked. “Since we’re basically already married.”

“Oh shut up.”

 

 

Leo was on hour three of an eight hour shift when he saw Calypso enter _Olympus_ from the corner of his eye. She clearly had just come from work, dressed for the day in a dark green blouse and a gray pencil skirt. He turned to wave at her just in time to see her go pale, turn around, and rush back out of the bar.

Frowning, he started for the little counter door that would let him out from behind the bar. A large group of college guys all wearing polo shirts with popped collars waved him down before he reached the door, immediately yelling out their drink orders. Leo huffed out a sigh and began to mix their irritatingly specific drinks, a small drop of relief running through him when he saw Reyna leave the bar to follow Calypso.

He continued mixing drinks as Calypso and Reyna re-entered and went over to the table where Piper, Annabeth, and Annabeth’s boyfriend stood and chatted. Leo watched as the unknown boyfriend tensed when Calypso joined the table, eyes narrowing slightly as he noticed that same tension settle across Calypso’s shoulders.

Calypso approached the counter as he finished pouring the last of the beers for the group of frat bros out on the town for the night. He moved down the bar to her, flashing a grin. “Hey Sunshine! What’ll it be?”

“A strawberry margarita on the rocks and you to stop calling me Sunshine,” she replied, leaning her elbows on the bar. Leo watched her rub the center of her forehead, a gesture he usually only saw after she’d had a long day at work. Glancing down the bar, making sure he wouldn’t be needed anywhere immediately, he mixed her drink easily and chewed on the inside of his cheek.

“You okay? I saw you run out earlier,” he asked quietly, sliding her drink across the counter. She looked up at him, eyes tired and sad. Something in his chest twisted slightly.

“Remember guy number four who broke my heart?” Calypso asked quietly, leaning towards him so their conversation wouldn’t be overheard. He leaned his elbows on the bar and nodded, remembering his own admission after her recital of failed relationships. _You’d be easy to love_. “Turns out he’s Annabeth’s boyfriend.”

“Shit,” Leo hissed, hands curling under the counter to form fists. “Need me to beat him up?”

“Pretty sure he would destroy you,” she told him. “But thanks for the offer.”

“You’re forgetting how many fights I get into,” Leo replied, knocking lightly on the bar with his knuckles. “I know how to beat someone up.”

She sipped her drink. “You also lose probably at least half those fights. Jason usually is the one to take care of it.”

“I bet I could still take him,” Leo muttered, glancing over at the table surrounded by their friends and eyeing the new guy. “Seriously, say the word.”

Calypso shook her head. “I’m good. I’m going to be a mature adult about this whole thing and learn to be his friend.”

“I could mess with his car?” Leo offered, more thinking out loud than expecting an answer. “I mean, obviously I wouldn’t really hurt it, but I could do something to it that would confuse him and be harmless but expensive?” Leo wouldn’t hurt a car, not even for Calypso. But he could make the jerk pay a lot of money to a mechanic for something that would end up being embarrassingly simple to fix.

She laughed, a sudden and bright sound that lit her face up. His breath caught to see the sadness vanish momentarily from her eyes. “Seriously, thank you. I’ll be okay.”

“You just say the word, Sunshine,” he told her as she walked away. She waved in acknowledgement before rejoining the group at the table.

Leo couldn’t help glancing over at the crowded table throughout the evening, relaxing slightly as the tension he could see in Calypso’s shoulders eased as the hours passed. Around one in the morning, an hour before Leo would clock out and be able to join the fun, Annabeth’s boyfriend came over to the counter. “Hey, could I close out my tab?”

Moving to the automated register, Leo clicked his way into the open tabs. “What was the name?”

“Percy Jackson.”

Nodding, Leo accepted and quickly ran the card he was handed. Watching the man sign his receipt, Leo sized him up silently. This was a guy who had broken Calypso’s heart. Maybe more importantly, this was a guy who fit everything Calypso looked for in a relationship. Tall, broad, definitely looked capable of physically sweeping someone off their feet. _I could still take him_ , Leo thought. _I’m probably faster than him. I can dodge more easily._

“Thanks,” Percy said, handing back the receipt. “You’re Leo, right?”

“Piper already told you about me, huh? It’s true, I’m great.”

He cracked a smile. “No, actually, Calypso mentioned you. It sounds like we’ll all be hanging out next weekend for a game night. I hear you’re the one to beat at Settlers of Cataan.”

Leo shrugged. “I’m okay at it, Hazel is really the one to beat in that game. I’m better at Exploding Kittens,” he noticed Percy’s slightly shocked look. “It’s a card game,” he assured him. “I’m not actually going around blowing up cats.”

“Noted,” Percy replied, glancing back at the table. “I should go, Annabeth was about ready to leave. But, uh, this might be weird for me to say, but I’m glad Calypso has someone like you around. She sounds happy, which is a relief.”

Leo narrowed his eyes. “Yeah, well, she deserves to be happy. She’s had a bad run of assholes in her life.”

Percy’s cheeks flushed slightly. “Right, uh, she has. But sounds like you aren’t an asshole, so hopefully she’s got that turned around.”

“We’re not together,” Leo finally said after an awkward few seconds of silence. “But I think she’s getting things figured out.”

Percy shook his head. “Man, if you’re not together that is definitely something you should figure out. The way she talks about you, sorry, I guess I just assumed. She used to talk about me that way.”

Leo glanced back over at their friends. Annabeth was finishing a hug from Piper and looking over towards the bar. “Looks like Annabeth’s set to go. Nice meeting you, Percy.”

“Same to you,” he replied, obviously biting back more things he wanted to say. Walking back to the group, Percy took Annabeth’s hand as they headed out of the bar.

Leo watched them go with a frown, his fingers tapping on the edge of the counter as he glanced back to the group of his friends just in time to see Calypso throw her head back in a laugh.

_You’re not her type,_ he told himself. _And that’s ok. You’re just protective, you’re like that with all your friends._

_Just because her ex thinks she has a thing for you doesn’t mean she does._

 

 

“So I think tomorrow night would be good for the movie,” Leo called to Jason from the kitchen. “None of us are on bar duty and Calypso said she’s free then. Did I tell you she wants to write a relationship article based on that advice my mom always gave me? She asked if she could use the quote and everything. Oh, and she said to tell you to tell Piper that she’ll bring that dress pattern they were talking about next time she stops by the bar,” he carried a bag of chips and a glass of water into the living room where Jason sat with his laminator, making new business cards for Hazel and Reyna. “Also, did you know she started making her own clothes again? She’s so cool.”

“Dude,” Jason said, squinting at Leo. “Didn’t we talk about this?”

“What? Going to see the new Guardians of the Galaxy movie?” Leo dropped into the armchair. “Did we?”

“No, talk about you not falling in love with Calypso.”

“What are you talking about?” Leo dropped the bag of chips beside Jason and pulled his fidget cube out of his pocket. “I’m not in love with Calypso.”

Jason fixed him with his sternest stare. “You text her a hundred times a day, always make sure you’re next to her at movie nights and game nights, and you’re planning the equivalent of a double date with going to this movie. Whenever you hang out with her, you won’t stop talking about it for at least three hours afterward, and whenever you say her name you light up like it’s your birthday and you just got the best gift ever. Tell me again that you’re not in love with Calypso.”

Leo repeatedly ran his thumb over the little silver spinner ball on the cube. “I’m not in love with Calypso,” he said, voice a little less sure than usual. “Okay?”

 

 

Leo had just finished replacing the carburetor into a white BMW convertible when he heard the door from the office open and close. Stretching his back slightly to ease the stiffness after being hunched over for so long, he turned to see what his boss wanted.

His heart gave a sudden jolt of surprise when he saw Calypso walking towards him rather than the bony and balding figure of his boss. She had her purse and a gym bag hooked over one shoulder, her caramel hair pulled back in a loose braid, and high heels that gave her an extra few inches of height over him. Her expression as she looked around the garage was slightly confused, as if she wasn’t really sure how she ended up here. Leo couldn’t help wondering the same thing.

She looked out of place in the best way; her pale pink shirt and floral skirt clashing with the chrome and grime of the auto shop. Her eyes were wide as they looked around the garage, softening slightly when they landed back on him. She was easily the cleanest thing in the building, and Leo couldn’t help but grin at how she held herself as if she weren’t sure she was allowed to be there. “Hey Sunshine, what are you doing here?”

Her eyes roved over him for a moment, sparking something deep in his stomach that he refused to think about. He watched as she reached into her purse, admiring the way her neck curved as she looked through the bag.

“Uh, you, uh, forgot your phone at Reyna’s last night,” she said while holding his phone out. “I had to come out this way to hit the next gym I’m reviewing, so she asked me to drop it off.”

He’d never heard her stutter like that before. Something about seeing her so out of her element made some kind of protective instinct flare up in his chest, the same feeling he had when she was upset in the bar after her first run-in with Percy. He took his phone and frantically tried to come up with something to put her at her ease. “How is the article going?”

Not his best work, but it seemed to do the trick. Her shoulders relaxed a little bit and the hand on her bag loosened up.

_And when did I start noticing so much of her body language?_

He picked up a water bottle from the small table he kept nearby while working on cars, praying his cheeks weren’t turning red from his sudden awareness of her. He tuned back into her response just in time to hear the end of her answer.

“-and most of the yoga classes have been pretty good,” she said with a little smile.

His brain was suddenly overwhelmed with the mental image of Calypso in a tight tank top and yoga pants. “Plus you get out of the office and can visit your devilishly handsome mechanic friends and say it was part of the job,” he winked. _Shit, where did that come from? Way to make things weird, Valdez._

Thankfully, Calypso didn’t seem to notice his crashing and burning. “What are you working on?” she asked, taking a few steps closer to the old white BMW he’d spent most of the afternoon on.

“Just replacing the carburetor and doing a general check-up,” he told her. “It’s my last car of the day, though, so then I’ll be able to spend some time with Festus.”

“Okay, what is Festus?” she asked, setting her bag on the rolling table. “You’ve talked about it before and I know it’s a car, but what is it?”

Leo looked up from the BMW, grinning. “Do you want to see him?”

“Sure,” she replied, her eyes soft again when she looked at him.

Ignoring the warm feeling in his chest from her look, he led her to the back of the garage where he parked Festus. Unable to resist a little showmanship, he pulled the tarp off the car with a flourish. “Calypso, meet Festus.”

He watched her slowly walk around the car, admiring the graceful way she moved even in the cluttered garage. “He’s a 1973 Pontiac Firebird; eight cylinders and 175 horsepower,” he couldn’t keep himself from rambling. “I bought him right after I finished my auto mechanic certification. Best money I ever spent.”

He didn’t mention how bad of shape Festus had been in when he purchased the car, didn’t mention the hours spent on the engine until it ran like new again. It wasn’t that he didn’t think Calypso wouldn’t understand- he knew she would. But he didn’t want to distract her from her examination, enjoying the way she peered in through the windows and admired the exterior.

“Why do you keep him at the garage?” she asked, absent-mindedly going along with his personification of the car.

Leo hid his grin in a shrug, his foot tapping on the floor. “You don’t park a classic on the street in front of an apartment, for one. Two, it helps bring in business sometimes. On nice days I’ll park Festus out in front of the garage and people will stop by just to look and then realize they do need something done on their car. My boss says we bring in enough extra on those days that I can keep Festus here for free.”

“That’s great,” Calypso murmured, stepping closer to the car and looking through the window at the interior. “Do you drive often?”

“Not as often as I’d like,” he admitted, running a gentle hand over the hardtop of the car. Honestly, he didn’t like to drive alone. It gave him too much time to be alone with his thoughts, too much time to get fed up with his own company. The last time he’d gone driving Piper and Hazel had squeezed into the car and gone with him for ice cream in the next county. It had been a week before Calypso walked into _Olympus_ the first time- he hadn’t had the time to take Festus out since.

“How much more do you need to do on the other car?” she asked, a spark in her eyes that Leo had never seen before.

“Uh, not much more? I have one more wire to reconnect and then just making sure everything’s clean and good to go.” Leo glanced back at the BMW, its hood still popped up.

“Go finish,” she said. “And then we’re going for a drive.”

Leo felt that spark in her eyes light something in his chest. He ignored the warmth, grinning at her in pure happiness. “Yes, ma’am.”

It took less than fifteen minutes for him to finish up with the BMW, let his boss know he was taking Festus out for a spin, and lift the accordion door in the car bay. Calypso slid into the passenger seat as he put the keys in the ignition, dropping her little purse on the floorboards by her feet. Leo looked over at her as he revved the engine before tearing out of the garage. Calypso rolled her eyes, but she grinned back at him.

Switching through the radio stations until he found the same one they played in the garage, Leo gestured for Calypso to roll down her window. “They’ve gotta be open for the full experience,” he yelled over the mixed roar of the wind, radio, and engine. “No good car ride happens with rolled-up windows.”

“I didn’t realize there were rules for car rides,” Calypso replied as she rolled down her window and pulled the hair band off the end of her long braid. She effortlessly regathered her loose hair in her hands and wrapped the band around the bun she formed at the back of her head.

Leo realized he was staring just as she turned to face him with her eyebrows raised. “I wouldn’t call them rules. More like things that all great car rides have in common.”

“Like?”

“Windows down, music loud, pretty girl in the passenger seat, no set destination in mind, good conversation, and high speeds,” Leo listed off. “So far, this drive looks like it’ll meet those requirements.”

She kept looking at him, lips quirked up in a smile. “Where did you get that list?”

“Made it myself,” he answered with a grin of his own, fingers drumming on the edges of the steering wheel. “What, can’t I be creative?”

She rolled her eyes, glancing out the window as they passed the city limit sign. They’d taken a back road from downtown, so they had nothing but open fields and a distant grouping of trees out in front of them.

She looked over at him, eyes bright with sparks that continued to light small fires in his chest that he didn’t know how to extinguish. “How fast can he go?”

Leo grinned, hands tightening on the wheel. “Well, there’s an open stretch of road in front of us, and I don’t see any cops, so let’s find out.”

She laughed when he floored the gas, her head tilting up and back. Late afternoon sunlight outlined her silhouette. A few strands of her hair had pulled loose from her updo as the wind rushed through the car from the open windows, casually framing her face and tickling her cheeks. She reached over to turn up the radio louder, filling the car with the sound of Stevie Wonder singing about his golden lady. Leo slowly pressed down on the brake as they approached a curve in the road, bringing them back to a safe speed.

Calypso leaned her head back on the seat, turning to grin at him. Her right cheek was a little pink from the sun coming through the window on that side, and the faintest hint of freckles was visible over her cheekbones. Her skirt had gotten stuck under one side of her legs, hitching it up to reveal a few inches of her thighs. Her smile was wider than he’d ever seen and her eyes were bright when they landed on him. The way she looked felt like a punch to his chest, like all the air had suddenly been sucked out of the car. “That was amazing,” she said, reaching out to lightly rest her hand over his on the stick-shift. “Thank you.”

Air returned to his lungs and his heart kicked into double-time. “Want to keep going?”

Her grin was the only answer he needed. She closed her eyes and leaned back in her seat as he hit the gas again, dust flying in their wake.

As they passed the county limit sign, Leo admitted to himself that he may be- _definitely was_ \- in love with Calypso.


	2. Part Two

**Sunshine: Hey, do you work tonight?**

Leo grabbed his phone and reread the text before responding. _No, what’s up?_

**Sunshine: Any chance you’re not doing something and wouldn’t mind hanging out? Had a tough day at work and could use some company.**

_On my way_. He grabbed his keys and headed over to the subway, getting off one stop earlier than her apartment to swing by the grocery store. He walked the last three blocks to her building with the bags in his arms, lightly kicking the base of her door instead of knocking.

She opened the door on his third kick, hair pulled up in a tight ponytail and work clothes swapped out for sweatpants and a tight tank top. Leo grinned and lifted the bags in his arms slightly. “Someone called for a cheer-up service?”

Calypso rolled her eyes and stepped aside to let him in. “What did you do?”

“I am making you dinner,” he replied, going straight to her kitchen and setting the bags on the counter. “Where do you have a skillet, cutting board, bowls, and knives?”

Calypso went around the kitchen, pulling out the requested items. Leo washed his hands and started pulling food out of the bags, setting it up on the counter in the order he wanted. He set some butter to melt in the skillet on the stove before chopping up vegetables.

Hopping up to sit on the counter beside the sink, Calypso watched as he began cooking. “What are you making?”

“Tacos,” he replied, adding some pepper to the melting butter before dumping chopped vegetables into the skillet. “Vegetarian, don’t worry. Unless you want meat, I remember you mentioned sometimes you cheat. Should I go run out and get chicken or beef?”

She shook her head, stealing one of the slices of pepper from the skillet with her bare fingers. “This looks great, Leo.”

He ducked his head, blushing slightly as he opened a jar of salsa. “It’s no big deal. So what happened at work?”

She sighed and leaned her head back against the cupboard behind her. “It was just one of those days where everything went wrong, you know? My computer wasn’t working so I had to have IT try to fix it, which took like half the day, and then one of my sources for the article I’m working on said they actually don’t want to be quoted, and then I went on Facebook on my lunch hour and saw another of my high school friends got engaged.”

“How dare they!” Leo joked, voice fake-outraged.

Calypso laughed. “I know! Everyone needs to stop falling in love so I can just be bitter in peace.”

Popping a few tortillas into the microwave to warm them up, Leo shook his head. “You’re not bitter, you’re just a little burned.”

“I’m bitter,” Calypso argued. “You could use me to season fries, I’m so salty.”

Leo checked on the vegetables, adjusting the stove heat. “Lies. Okay, where are your plates and utensils?”

Calypso jumped back down from the counter to get the dishes, helping Leo load everything onto two plates. They moved the food out to the living room and queued up a show on Netflix, eating and chatting through the episode. Once they finished, Leo took the plates back into the kitchen and cleaned up.

He came back to the living room to find Calypso curled up on one end of the couch. She patted the cushion next to hers. “Another episode?”

“Sure,” he replied, sitting beside her.

She readjusted to lean her head against his shoulder. “Thanks for coming over.”

“Anytime, Sunshine,” he said, letting his cheek rest lightly on her head. “You know that.”

 

 

Leo whipped Festus into one of the two open parallel parking spots in front of Calypso’s office building, taking the keys out of the ignition before getting out and leaning against the side of the car. He idly twirled the keys around his fingers as he waited, watching the slow trickle of people leaving the building at the end of the work day. A few people glanced over at him as they passed, a few of the men giving him an approving nod towards Festus and one or two women smiling at him.

Reyna came out alone after he’d been waiting a few minutes, rolling her eyes when she saw him posed against Festus. “Seriously?”

“What?” Leo asked defensively. “Maybe I’m here to see you.”

“Please,” she flipped the end of her braid over her shoulder. “Calypso will be down soon, she had a last minute meeting with her department over next month’s theme or something. But is this really your best plan?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Leo replied, spinning the keys more quickly.

Reyna gave him a very unimpressed look. “You can deny it all you want, Valdez, but we both know you love her. Is taking her on car rides really your best plan?”

Leo flushed, hands fumbling and dropping the keys. He crouched to pick them up. “Until I come up with a better plan, yeah.”

Reyna shook her head. “You are a mess,” she said. “Good luck. If you see Frank before I do, tell him we’re going to that fencing place next weekend, not the archery range.”

Leo rolled his eyes as she walked off, resettling against Festus. He resumed spinning the keys around his finger, one eye on the door.

Calypso finally came out of the building behind a group of guys in button-down shirts and ties, her head ducked as she put something into her purse. The combination of her blue dress and the bright sunlight made her hair look like it had hints of red in it, a look that did her unnecessary favors in Leo’s eyes. She wore flats for once, so she was only an inch or two taller than him- _perfect height to kiss_ , he thought before immediately banishing the idea. Pushing away from Festus, Leo let out a quick whistle. “Hey Sunshine!”

Calypso stopped and looked up from her bag, laughing when Leo waved and pointed at his car. She ignored the group of her coworkers that had also stopped to admire the car, walking over and giving Leo a quick hug. “What are you doing here?” she asked when she stepped back again. “And with Festus, no less.”

“I thought we could go for a drive,” he replied, opening the passenger side door for her. “This will probably be the last warm Friday of the year, and I happen to know an amazing ice cream place a few towns over.”

She slid into the passenger seat and let him close the door. Leo gave a loose salute to the guys watching and hurried around to the driver’s side. As he started the car, he nodded at the group still on the sidewalk. “What’s with those guys?”

Calypso glanced out the windshield before shaking her head. “That’s the sports section team and a couple of the guys from the business section. They’re probably just into your car.”

 _Or they have crushes on you and are amazed you got into a car with me_ , Leo thought, pulling into traffic. “So how was your day?”

“Boring. I spent most of the day working on that article on tips for first-time homebuyers, which is ridiculous since I don’t even own a house,” she told him, rolling down her window and flipping on the radio. “How was yours?”

He shrugged. “Worked on a couple cars, did inventory on some stuff in the garage, just a usual Friday.”

They pulled to a stop at a red light. Leo glanced over at Calypso as she pulled the hairband from her hair and let it fall loose around her shoulders. She leaned back in the seat and looked over at him, smiling when she caught him staring. “What?”

 _You’re beautiful, I love you, I can’t believe you actually like spending time with me, want to go get married, I wonder what it would be like to kiss you, did you know you’re my favorite person?_ He smiled shakily and shook his head, fingertips drumming on the steering wheel. “Nothing.”

“Seriously?” she asked as the light turned green. “Come on, tell me.”

He shook his head. “Seriously, I was just spacing out.”

She made a face at him and turned up the radio a little more. Twisting the tuning dial until she found a station not playing commercials, she sat back in her seat and leaned her head back, stretching her neck and back. As they got closer to the edges of town, the wind blew through the car more fiercely and played with the long strands of her hair. Leo did his best not to stare. _You are driving a car, Valdez_ , he thought. _Do not crash Festus because of a beautiful girl_.

The drive passed in relative quiet as they both relaxed in each other’s company after the work week. Calypso quietly sang along with some of the songs on the radio, laughing when Leo kept time with the beat on the steering wheel. They got to the ice cream shop in what felt like no time at all, pulling into an open spot and going into the little shop.

“What’s your favorite flavor?” Calypso asked, looking over the options.

“Cookie dough,” Leo replied. “With extra sprinkles on top. Yours?”

“Strawberry and chocolate,” she said. “I can never just pick one.”

Once they had their ice cream cones, they went back outside to eat them in the warm sunshine at a picnic table next to the parking lot. “How’d you find this place?” Calypso asked, focused on not letting her cone melt onto her hand.

“Hazel and Nico grew up not too far from here,” he replied. “They told me about it, and I stopped one time during a drive. I refuse to go to any other ice cream place now.”

“Never pegged you for an ice cream snob,” she teased. A little smear of ice cream had gotten onto her chin. Thoughtlessly, Leo reached out to wipe it away with his thumb. Halfway through the action, his brain caught up.

 _Oh shit,_ he thought, looking into her big brown eyes. The breath caught in his chest and he became intensely aware of how close they were; him leaning over the table to reach out to her, the stickiness of the ice cream melting on his hand, the warmth of her skin under his fingers, how few inches he would have to move to press his lips to hers.

It played out in his head: he’d move his hand to rest against her cheek, lean in and pass his lips over hers. She’d taste like strawberries and he’d probably end up dropping his cone on the ground. Ideally she’d kiss him back, put her own hand on his shoulder to keep him close and keep kissing him until her ice cream melted too.

Their eyes stayed locked on each other as he sat back down on the picnic bench, the imaginary kiss still playing out in his head. Calypso touched her chin lightly. “Do I still have ice cream there?”

He shook his head, both to answer her question and to get his head back on track. “No, you’re good.”

She smiled, brighter than the sun. “So where to next?”

 

 

Leo leaned back farther in his seat on Calypso’s couch, waiting for her to return from saying goodbye to Annabeth, Percy, and Reyna as they left for their various taxis and trains. His own train back to his side of town wasn’t due at the station for another forty-five minutes, meaning he got to spend the time torturing himself by being alone with Calypso and doing everything he could not to kiss her.

That had become a recurring problem for him over the last few weeks since their trip to get ice cream- he kept realizing moments when kissing her would feel completely _right_. Quick pecks when she left the bar after keeping him company on quiet nights, gentle kisses on the back of her hand when she said something particularly sweet, sloppy kisses on the side of her face when she was annoyed with him, one intensely hot and drawn-out kiss when she showed up at the garage wearing his leather jacket to return it after he’d forgotten it at her apartment. He’d been pretty sure he was about to burst into flames at that one.

 _It would be a soft, slow kiss right now_ , he thought as she returned to the living room and flopped onto the other end of the couch and put her feet in his lap. _One that says there’s no rush and we can spend as much time as we want just kissing and holding each other_.

He absently started tapping on her ankle, trying to pull his thoughts away from the imaginary make out happening inside his head. Landing on a song he’d heard earlier in the day, he started tapping out the words on her foot.

“What’s that rhythm you always tap?” she asked, cheek pressed against the back of the couch. She watched him sleepily, voice quiet.

“Hmm?” he asked, startled back out of the song in his head. “Oh, uh, Morse code. I learned it as a kid. Mom and I used to talk through our walls at night until I fell asleep.”

“You still remember it?”

“Bits of it,” he nodded, still tapping. “Not as much as I used to know.”

They sat in silence again for a few moments. “What was your favorite Halloween costume as a kid?” Calypso asked, mind obviously back on the movies they’d marathoned throughout the evening.

He grinned, the answer coming immediately. “I was a campfire one year.”

“A campfire?” skepticism filled her voice.

“Yeah, I even carried marshmallows on skewers with me like I was making s’mores off myself,” he told her, tickling her ankles until she yanked her feet away. “Definitely the most fun. You?”

“I was the Little Mermaid one year,” she said, pulling the blanket off the back of the couch and throwing him an end as she covered her legs. “But it was freezing, so my parents made me wear a coat over it, which really upset me because I was so sure no one would see my costume under the coat. So before I went up to each house I’d make my dad take my coat and I’d run up to the door and then run back and he’d instantly cover me up again.”

Leo laughed, picturing a tiny version of Calypso with missing front teeth in her smile pushing her way out of a massive coat to reveal a mermaid costume. “Okay, that sounds a little like you were flashing the neighbors as a child.”

“You know, it probably looked that way, now that I think about it,” she giggled. “But I loved that costume. I think I held onto it for years, thinking I’d wear it again.”

“Did you ever?”

“God no,” she replied. “I grew out of it within like six months. But I am really great at denial, so I kept believing it would magically fit again.”

“Worst costume?”

She winced. “I went as a mime to a party one year in high school.”

“Jason and I went as the princes from _Into The Woods_ the year after the movie came out,” Leo admitted without thinking, wincing once he realized he’d just given her material to use for blackmail.

“Please tell me you have pictures.”

He did not trust that gleam in her eyes. “I burned them all.”

“I bet Piper saved some.”

“Oh god, I hope you’re wrong.”

Calypso cackled as she sent a quick text to Piper. Seconds later a picture came through in response. “Oh my god, you even did the torn open shirts!”

Leo leaned back into the couch and groaned, his face in his hands. “In my defense, it was all Jason’s idea. I wanted to go as classic 80s rockers.”

“Of course you did,” Calypso replied. “I hope you know I’m saving this picture and will use it against you next time I need blackmail.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less,” he said graciously, tugging over a little more of the blanket.

She smiled at him again, everything about her soft in the dull light from the one standing lamp in the corner of the room. Her hair was rumpled and falling from its ponytail on one side from how she leaned against the couch, one of the straps of her tank top was sliding off her shoulder, and her eyes were heavy with the need for sleep. Calypso snuggled down further into the couch, pushing her feet farther onto his lap.

He had never seen anyone so beautiful.

“Wake me up before you go, okay?” she said with a yawn. “I’ll clean then.”

“I promise to wake you up before I go-go,” he said with a grin.

She groaned. “Too late for song puns.” Her eyes fluttered closed and within minutes her chest rose and fell in the steady rhythm of sleep.

Glancing at his phone, Leo let his head fall back onto the couch. Another thirty minutes to pass before his train. Thinking he wasn’t too tired, he let his own eyes close for a moment.

When he woke up, morning sunlight snuck into the room through the slats of the blinds on the window. He had curled up on the couch and at some point a second blanket had been draped over him. Calypso was nowhere to be seen, but he could hear water running somewhere in the apartment. Leo sat up and rubbed a hand over his face.

He had stayed over at Calypso’s apartment before, usually with at least one or two other people after a game night or movie marathon that went too late. With how frequently their friends got together they were all fairly used to waking up on each other’s couches. Between the other times he’d slept over and the time he had made her dinner, he was able to locate glasses in her kitchen cupboards and poured himself a glass of orange juice while he waited for her to come back out of her room.

She appeared a few minutes later, dressed for the day in a pair of faded jeans he’d never seen before and a green sweater with a cartoon deer on it. She pulled her still-damp hair up into a ponytail as she walked into the kitchen, stopping when she saw him. “Oh, hey. You’re up.”

Leo frowned. Something about her voice didn’t sound right. “Yeah, I got some OJ, hope you don’t mind.”

She shook her head. “No, help yourself. Sleep okay?”

“Yeah,” he replied. “Sorry for crashing without asking.”

“It’s fine,” she said with a quick smile. “Sorry I fell asleep on you.”

It was probably the most polite conversation they had ever had. Leo didn’t like it. “Um, I should probably head out and prove to Jason that I’m not dead. Talk to you later?”

She nodded, following him towards the door. “Yeah. Let me know when you get home, okay?”

Leo nodded, giving her a confused smile before leaving. During the whole train ride back to his apartment he kept running the previous evening over in his head, trying to figure out if he did something wrong or upset her somehow. When he got off at his stop, he still didn’t have an answer.

 

 

Two weeks later found Leo on his back under a black 1999 Toyota at Bunker 11 Auto, realigning the axels and cleaning up the undercarriage. Other than the sounds of his work, the garage was silent for once. He wanted to hear his phone if it rang or received a text.

There had been absolute radio silence from Calypso since he’d stayed over at her place after the Halloween movie marathon. He’d texted her every day since then: trying to convince her to go for a drive in Festus, asking if she wanted to go to the animal shelter to look at kittens, generally trying to make sure she was around and okay. None of his texts had earned a response, and he had begun to get more than a little antsy.

“She seemed okay at girls’ night,” Piper told him earlier that evening, watching Jason choose between two options for the Halloween party invitations he was about to laminate. “And I know she hung out with Percy, Frank, and Annabeth last weekend when they went to the farmer’s market.”

His chest stung with the suddenness of the jealousy flooding him. “So everyone else has seen her lately?”

“It’s probably nothing,” Jason reassured him, not seeing Piper’s skeptical expression behind him. “Maybe she just hasn’t felt like texting?”

“She always texts back,” Leo replied, grabbing his keys from the bowl on the counter. “Always. Whatever, I’m going to the garage for a while. Don’t stay up all night laminating.”

He ignored Piper and Jason’s matching looks of concern as he left the apartment.

Working on the cars in the garage helped slightly, if only because they gave him something to focus on other than Calypso and her vanishing act. He just couldn’t figure out where things went wrong. _Was it something I said? Did I offend her somehow? Should I not have stayed over? Did I do something that she just found out to make her mad? Has she secretly hated me this whole time and staying over was the last straw?_

_Did she find out how I feel and not want anything to do with me now?_

He pushed himself out from under the car and dropped the wrench on the ground. Sitting up, he put his hands over his face, ignoring the car oil and grease on his hands. Letting out a deep breath, he made up his mind. This silence had lasted long enough.

After a quick clean-up of the garage and lowering the car back to the floor, Leo stripped out of his cover-alls and opened the bay door by Festus, grabbing his keys and getting onto the road. It took less than fifteen minutes to get to Calypso’s building. From the parking lot he could see a light on in the window of her apartment. He stopped to stare at that light for a moment before rushing inside and up to the third floor, stopping at the door for unit 324. Taking in another deep breath, he began knocking.

“I’m coming! Hold on!” he heard Calypso call from inside the apartment. His heart gave a painful squeeze at the sound of her voice. The door swung open a second later.

She was wrapped up in a thin purple robe, the front tied loosely to show off the black tank top and tiny blue shorts she wore underneath. Her hair was loose down her back, soft waves that he desperately wanted to weave his fingers through. His heart beat fiercely against his chest, as if it were trying to break out of his body to land at her feet.

Leo put his keys away in his pocket, forcing himself to keep eye contact with her rather than try to protect himself by looking away. “Okay, Sunshine, we need to talk.”

 

 

 “When did it happen?” Calypso asked the next morning, hand in his as they walked to the diner around the corner from her apartment.

Leo blinked, distracted from his study of her profile. “When did what happen?”

“When did you fall in love with me?” she asked quietly, a pretty little blush rising on her cheeks.

He kissed her cheek, making her blush even harder. _Never gonna get tired of that._ “I knew it the first time we went for a drive in Festus.”

“But that was months ago!”

“Yep,” he swung their hands between them as they waited for the crossing light. “I probably actually fell in love with you a little before that, but that’s when I admitted it to myself.”

She looked at him, shook her head, and pulled him closer for a kiss. Her free hand held onto his shoulder even after they pulled apart. “You know, you could have said something.”

“From what our friends say, I wasn’t exactly subtle,” Leo argued as they crossed the road. “Jason and Piper figured it out way before I did. And Reyna kept telling me to make a move.”

“She’s such a secret softie,” Calypso said. “But don’t tell her I said that. She’ll go do something to prove I’m wrong and I really don’t want to have to bail her out of jail.”

Leo held open the door of the diner. “What about you? When did you fall for me?” he followed her over to a window booth and slid in opposite her. “Wait, let me guess, it was when I sent you all those videos of cats meowing along with Queen songs.”

She snorted into her glass of water. “Definitely wasn’t that. I think it was probably around the same time as you- I started having feelings after the ride in Festus. But I denied it for way longer. I just finally admitted it to myself two weeks ago.”

He did the math in his head as the waitress came over to take their orders. Once she walked away again, he snapped his fingers. “Is that why you were so weird after I stayed over that night?”

Calypso nodded. “I was so sure you’d want nothing to do with me if you knew.”

He took her hand over the table, entwining their fingers. “And now?”

She grinned, bright enough to take away his breath. _Never gonna get over that either._ “Now I think I’m going to be stuck with you for a very long time.”

“You have that right,” he grinned back, pressing the back of her hand to his lips. “You won’t get rid of me easily at all.”

Calypso beamed at him, pulling their hands towards her as she leaned over the table to kiss him quickly. Leo tangled his free hand in her hair, holding her there longer. They sprung apart at the sound of someone clearing their throat.

The waitress stood by their table, plates of pancakes and eggs in each hand. “Who had the short stack?”

Leo lifted his hand sheepishly.

 

 

“Does my hair look alright?” Leo called from the bathroom, running another hand over his gelled-back curls. “I feel like it looks weird.”

“You’re just not used to the gel,” Calypso assured him, coming in and wrapping her arms around his waist, chin on his shoulder. “Did you remember to bring your leather jacket?”

He nodded. “It’s in Festus. You ready to go?”

“Let me quick put on lipstick and my shoes,” she replied, letting him go and pulling open a drawer under the sink. Leo leaned against the doorway as she applied bright red lipstick and checked her eye make-up. Her hair was a riot of perfectly done curls, and he really appreciated the black leather pants she’d put on and the off-the-shoulder black top.

“Did I mention I really like that costume?” he asked as she walked past him back into her room.

She sat down on the bed to pull on her bright red high heels, grinning up at him. “I like yours too, Babe. Danny Zuko is a good look on you.”

He moved to stand in front of her before she stood up again, running a gentle hand through her hair. “Think anyone will notice if we’re a little late?”

She smirked. “Probably. Do you mind?”

“Not at all,” he told her, leaning in for a kiss.

They showed up an hour late to the party, Calypso wearing Leo’s leather jacket and a little of Calypso’s lipstick smeared at the corner of his mouth. He didn’t stop grinning all night.


End file.
